First run

Start uji in the directory you want to work on.

cd ~/code/project
uji

Signing in

Type /login and pick a provider from the list.

• Anthropic and OpenAI ask how you want to sign in. “Subscription (sign in with browser)” opens the provider’s sign-in page, and “API key” asks for a key.
• A provider that needs a key asks for it. The prompt names the environment variable uji also reads, such as ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, and pressing Enter on an empty prompt uses that variable instead.
• Custom asks for the base_url and model of a server that takes OpenAI chat requests.

uji saves keys in auth.toml in the data directory, readable only by you. To keep them in the system keychain instead, call uji.auth.configure in your config.

Choosing a model

/models lists the models of every provider you are signed in to. /effort sets how much the model reasons, from the levels that model accepts.

Working with the model

• Enter sends your message. Shift+Enter, Alt+Enter or Ctrl+J start a new line.
• A message you send while the model works waits, and goes out when the turn ends.
• Esc clears the input line. On an empty line, Esc stops the turn.
• A line that starts with ! runs in your shell, in the session’s directory. Its output shows in the transcript, and the model does not see it.
• When a tool call needs your approval, y lets it run. n or Esc refuses it, and you can then tell the model what to do instead.

Sending images

Ctrl+V attaches the image on the clipboard, or pastes its text when it holds no image. Pasting the path of an image file attaches that file, which is what dragging a file into most terminals does, and @screenshot.png in a message attaches the file when you send it.

Each attached image shows as [image #1] on the input line, and deleting the marker drops the image. uji takes PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP files. It turns photos upright and scales images down to 1568 pixels on their long side, then to a smaller size or JPEG when they would still pass 5 MB.

A request carries the 20 newest images of the conversation, and a note takes the place of older ones. A model that takes no images gets the text with the same kind of note. uji knows this for most built-in models, and learns it for others the first time a model refuses a request with images.

The model can open images on its own as well. read_file on a PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP file in the working directory gives it the image.

uji saves every conversation as a session. Commands shows how to go back to one.